Morality Flip-Flops, A Town Called Mercy.

So Series 7 has surprised me so far. Asylum of the Daleks was very predictable and the ending was cringe worthy, but otherwise was a fun episode. Of course there were problems, it was a Steven Moffat episode, so there were plot holes as narrative all over the place. Unlike some of his previous episodes though, Asylum worked well and wasn't annoyingly bad. Even for it's flaws. Then there was Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. When I heard that title I cringed, yet it turned out well. A little silly in places, but it worked, every character was fleshed out and different. Chibnall managed to write a powerful female character in Nefertiti who wasn't all sarcasm, rude quips and sex. Though there was a lot of it. It certainly wasn't as annoying as Moffat's version of women (you know they're all the same). Which is why it was most interesting how Chibnall made Amy work well in Dinosaurs! Some of the more peculiar issues of her character were almost parodied in the episode, making light of the fact that she is almost a "super-companion" at times. Even better, Chibnall seems to remember that the Doctor does kill people and aliens. Two good episodes in a row (of course there are flaws but they were good just the same). Then along comes A Town Called Mercy.

On my first viewing I didn't think it was bad. There was just a niggling sensation at the back of my mind, like there was something off at every turn. Like with Asylum the story was very predictable, it's difficult to come up with different concepts for the ahistorical stories I'm sure, but this was essentially The Curse of the Black Spot. Alien interferes with history. (Isn't that every episode?) It was interesting at first how they tried to imply that the alien that was the evil character was in fact the good character. Yet this just went in a very annoying way.

For starters, it results in a totally pointless discussion about how they should handle the situation. I say totally pointless because, the discussion goes no where. The character is a war criminal, a horrific, beyond the Nazis style war criminal. Sacrificing him to the good, misunderstood character, would save everyone in the town, women and children included. Rory suggests doing it, the Doctor even thinks about it. Even better, the Doctor goes to do it, at gun point. Why is this good? He even says why; people die because he lets the evil ones live. Now let's be honest, the ones he mentions? Only one of them (The Master) does he ever not kill.

So just after an episode in which the Doctor killing someone, someone who killed a ship full of Silurians, and an on screen dinosaur, is treated as heroic and amazing. We get treated to an episode that says "No Doctor, you never kill." Now, that's just bad episode planning surely? Perhaps this episode would of been a bit better later on, when we'd perhaps seen him kill people in every episode up to this one? Instead we've seen him fight Daleks (who it's just fine to kill I'm sure) and an old crippled man, who he definitely killed. In fact, if memory serves he mocked the old man as he did it. I don't think Amy batted an eyelash at that though.

Yet it's the way that it's handled so quickly, and so rushed that makes it far worse. Going beyond the fact that the show flip-flopped within the week on morality with its titular character. The Doctor pulls a gun on the evil war criminal to exile him out, to his death. Not that we've seen him do something like hold a gun and threaten some one 'helpless' before.

Then Amy pulls a gun on the Doctor. He immediately points out the plot-hole for us that she won't shoot. So there's no tension there. Her point about him changing because he travels alone is insultingly bad. For starters, he hasn't really changed. Ignore the Classic (argh I hate saying that), pretend that it's only Nu Who for a moment. He killed the "bad" (even if they weren't really bad) in;

 Rose, The End of the World, The Unquiet Dead, Aliens of London, The Long Game, Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways (kinda), Tooth and Claw, School Reunion (he sacrifices his best firend!), The Girl in the Fireplace, Rise of the Cybermen, The Idiot's Lantern, The Impossible Planet, Love & Monsters, Army of Ghosts, The Runaway Bride, Smith and Jones, Daleks in Manhatten, The Lazerus Experiment, Human Nature (he does worse than just kill them), Blink (worse than kill again), The Fires of Pompeii, The Sontaran Stratagem, The Unicorn and the Wasp, Midnight, The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, The Waters of Mars, The End of Time, The Time of Angels, The Vampires of Venice, Vincent and the Doctor, The Lodger, Day of the Moon, The Doctor's Wife, The Almost People, The God Complex, Closing Time, The Wedding of River Song, Asylum of the Daleks, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.

A lot of them isn't there? Most of the series in fact. Even better is the fact that The Wedding of River Song isn't really The Doctor killing the big bad. Instead it was Amy who killed her. I know it's a struggle for the show to maintain continuity between Classic and Nu Who, but surely it can maintain continuity between it's own seasons with the same characters? Amy killed some one, yes it was over her child being kidnapped, but she still killed some one. Yet she stands pious against killing a war criminal? The morality of the show flip-flopped between this and last week and it's just poor story telling. Which is a shame. 2 out of 3 episodes isn't bad. Hopefully Power of Three will be a good one too!